Dangers of underage sexting

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Pflugerville mom, Angela, bought her daughter,13, a cell phone in December, hoping to keep up with the increasingly active teenager.  But she recently discovered some disturbing messages on the young girl's cell phone.

"I discovered that she was deleting her text messages- and then I found out why she was deleting the text messages," said Angela, who did not want us to use her last name. "Explicit sexual advances from boys- telling her explicitly what they wanted to do to her and what they wanted her to do to them."

And there were photos, too.

"Showing the bedroom and saying something in context to the bedroom," said Angela. "I was very upset and I cried.  And I'd had enough."

Angela took the phone away from her daughter, but said that is not the best solution, either.

"I mean, I want to be able to contact her, that's the advantage the cell phone has,"

Angela's dilemma is hardly unique. 20 percent of teens admit to electronically posting nude pictures online or sending them through a text message, according to a study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unwanted Pregnancy. "Sexting" is when someone sends sexually explicit messages or nude photos through text message. It has become increasingly more common since studies find two-thirds of children ages 10 to 19 have a personal cell phone.

"I think discussion is the most important part of this problem- you should tell your kids that any kind of posting they make- text message or video or photo- can instantly be viewed by anybody," said Austin child psychiatrist, Dr. Jay Fogelman.

"The typical type of sexting is a girlfriend who wants to hook up with a boyfriend, so to be competitive, she may send a nude photo of herself and when they break up,he's likely going to release those photos to his friends and colleagues and the girl is just terribly ashamed," said Dr. Fogelman.

That is exactly what happened to Jessie Logan, 18. Logan was a vivacious high school senior in Ohio, who took her life after a nude photo she sent to her boyfriend ended up all over school. She was taunted and bullied for months.

"She was being attacked, harassed, bullied," said Jessie's mom, Cynthia Logan. "People were throwing things at her."

Cynthia Logan discovered her daughter hanging in her bedroom last summer.

In Pennsylvania, six teens ages 14 to 17 face child porn charges for sending and spreading nude photos.

"This is a whole new frontier- I mean we are really on a whole new frontier as parents," said Angela.

Child psychiatrists encourage parents to talk to their children about "sexting." They suggest buying cell phones that do not have cameras and recommend parents learn how to disable attachments in their children's text messages.

Pflugerville mom Angela has a little advice of her own.

"I would encourage parents not to be naive," she said. "You want to believe that your son or daughter is doing their best and that you raised them appropriately- that they know the difference between wrong and right , but sometimes its hard to make good decisions."